Passenger Terminal Consisting of Mobile Room Units

ABSTRACT

Presented is a passenger terminal that includes modular room units that include facilities necessary for passenger traffic. The modular room units are configured to be shipped in standardized containers by means of ordinary transport vehicles by at least one of land, sea, and air to a predetermined construction site. The modular room units are also configured to be assembled at the predetermined construction site in a short amount of time to produce a functional passenger terminal building according to a predetermined planning grid.

The invention concerns a passenger terminal that consists of mobile room units. Passenger terminals are needed for airports and seaports as well as for large train stations, bus terminals, and the like.

A passenger terminal of the type described here can be universally used but is described here basically for the example of an airport, especially an international airport. Throughout the world, airport passenger terminals find themselves at the limits of their capacity, because the numbers of passengers are increasing sharply every year. Similarly, there are increases in the requirements for safety equipment, especially in international airports, and in the demand for high baggage loading and unloading capacity and high passenger handling capacity. Furthermore, many terminals need to be modernized, which at present can usually be accomplished only by complete rebuilding. To increase capacity or to modernize the arrival and departure areas of terminals, new construction or conventional additions are generally erected on site by conventional means. The weather-dependent realization of the terminal at the site of construction has a significant effect on the construction time and can lead to serious time delays, cost overruns, or revenue losses in the terminal facilities. In general, a great deal of time and a large number of technical personnel are required for the technical development, since after completion of the building, the many interfaces must be tested on site, especially in the case of high-technology terminals.

Modern terminals, for example, the new airport in Bangkok or Terminal 2 at Munich Airport, are produced in glass and steel construction with suitably large and stable hollow sections, partly with the use of repeating skeleton grids.

In construction engineering, a series of modular designs is known, each of which is used individually by itself, depending on the purpose of the building and the room design. The production of planning grids for assembling ground plans is well known. It is also known that parts, for example, of a residential building, can be prefabricated and used in a structure that is otherwise to be constructed on site. In the case of residential buildings, for example, those with wood panel construction, complete homes are prefabricated in a factory and delivered in the form of panels to the construction site, where they are then assembled according to the architectural plans. The construction of container villages on construction sites is also well known. They can be used for the construction crew as offices, housing units, and sanitary facilities. In rare cases, modules are prefabricated for hospitals or rooming houses. These modules are planned in a structural size that just allows them to be shipped to the construction site, for example, adjusted in height for the nearest bridge.

US 2005/0138867 A1 proposes the development of various ecological house types for a wide variety of applications. A component system or modular system is not disclosed.

US 2003/0213184 A1 discloses the arrangement in an airport of similarly or identically designed search booths arranged singly or multiply side by side or one after the other for the inspection of baggage and personal security screening of passengers. Modular construction of prefabricated units is not disclosed.

The document US 2002/0189173 A1 discloses a structural unit that can be prefabricated for a power supply or sewage disposal facility, which can be prefabricated as a complete module and shipped to a site where it is to be used. The modules can be equipped, alternatively or additively, with an electric power generating plant, a water supply plant, a sewage plant, or the like. Containers of this type can then be flanged, for example, onto residential buildings that are being erected on site if suitable interfaces are present. The present invention proceeds on the basis that a container of this type can be used for the primary power supply or waste disposal in combination with the invention that will be described here.

Taking the cited prior art as a point of departure, the objective of the invention is to propose a passenger terminal and a manufacturing method for it, which can be delivered anywhere in the world and erected in the shortest possible time fully functional and ready for occupancy.

In accordance with the invention, this objective is achieved by the features of claims 1 and 13. Refinements of the invention are specified in the dependent claims.

The solution to the problem comprises, first of all, a passenger terminal of a type that typically finds use in international airports, which consists of mobile room units in modular construction. It contains all of the facilities necessary for passenger traffic, at least for the following terminal areas: passenger registration/check-in, arrival rooms, departure rooms, baggage handling, terminal-specific engineering, administration, building engineering, and can be prefabricated from modular, mutually complementary, inherently stable room units. It can be shipped by means of ordinary transport vehicles for standardized containers by land, by sea and by air to the predetermined construction site and can be assembled there in a short amount of time to produce a functional passenger terminal building according to a predetermined planning grid.

In this regard, room units are to be used which correspond in their length and width to a standard transport container in accordance with DIN/ISO standards and are standardized in their height for the application. For example, a room unit is used which conforms essentially to a box container with the designation 1C according to DIN/ISO.

In any case, all room units are formed as rectangular solids and have a steel frame, not made of any desired type of sections, like box containers, but rather made of standardized hollow sections, for example, Mannesmann steel building construction sections of preferably rectangular cross section. Therefore, the room units consist above all of a frame of hollow sections, with the hollow sections forming the edges of the rectangular solids. According to requirements, floors or side walls or ceilings can be inserted, as is well known in the case of box containers. However, a steel frame of this type can also be used as a modular room unit in itself, for example, as a support structure for other room units to be placed on it or next to it.

Room units of this type, which can be prefabricated according to standard specifications in a factory, which is weather-independent, can then be shipped to a prepared site by customary means of transportation, namely, transport vehicles that are suitable for container transport. Throughout the world, cargo handling technology is designed to unload containers of this type from one means of transportation, for example, a ship, to a railroad car, an airplane, or a truck and then to transport it further. The steel frames of the modules are computed on the basis of the static conditions according to the requirements to be placed on them as building parts, but they are also designed for dynamic loads during their shipment by the various means of transportation and possibly dynamic loads due to internal structures built into the modules.

In accordance with the invention, a small airport can be realized with modules of this type, or an airport can be expanded by a terminal, or a temporary airfield terminal can be erected after catastrophic events.

A terminal building of this type basically consists of at least five functional areas, namely, passenger departure, passenger arrival, passenger check-in and baggage check-in, a public or commercial area, for example, for stores or waiting areas, and a wing for administration and technical units for the building and possibly for the terminal function in connection with the airport or seaport.

The cited standards for containers include, for example, so-called 20-foot ISO shipping containers with a length of 20 feet or a good 6 meters and a width of about 8 feet or not quite 2.5 meters. In standardized container construction, these containers also have a height of about 8 feet. For buildings, a different height is selected, preferably, in the case of terminals, a height of about 3.20 m overall or 2.75 m inside height of the containers, which generally corresponds to the usual room heights in buildings of this type. Instead of 20-foot-long containers of the same width and height, it is also possible to use 30-foot or 40-foot containers in this invention. The gross weights (total allowable weights) are about 20, 25, or 30 metric tons, depending on the size of the container. These weights allow a sufficiently large useful load for complete prefabrication of the individual modules as fully functional units with corresponding interfaces to adjacent modules.

A terminal generally consists of several levels, four example, four tiers and can be modularly assembled from the specified modules.

The method for erecting a passenger terminal of this type comprises the following steps, which can be supplemented by additional steps:

Construction of the terminal for a standard size with a very small assumed number of passengers, for example, 500,000 passengers per year.

In a terminal of this type, all of the functional areas that are desired are built in, but at least the previously cited areas for passenger registration or check-in and baggage check-in, an arrival zone, a departure zone, and public and commercial areas for the sale of food and beverages or for other typical businesses for duty-free articles or travel needs, and terminal engineering, for example, the monitoring of runway navigation lights, the administration and building engineering, such as the whole power department and fire department, and the like;

after this step, there is a planning division of the terminal horizontally in two axes and vertically in the third axis, i.e., all together, into a cubic grid or room units with lengths and widths that conform with DIN/ISO containers and with a height that is to be established or predetermined.

Then the functional areas are optimized to the size of the room units and suitable interfaces are provided between the room units, so that doors, windows, or power lines can be connected with each other in the right places and a high degree of prefabrication is possible;

the room units are prefabricated and shipped to the construction site, completely equipped with functional components according to the subsequent purpose of use.

At the construction site, the terminal building is modularly assembled from the modules.

In the meantime, during the manufacturing of the room units, all necessary power and infrastructure connections, such as streets and paths, lighting, etc., and foundations are independently prepared at the construction site for the terminal as far as interfaces at which they can be connected with the terminal building.

A terminal that has been prepared in this way can be enlarged by inserting or adding modules to the extent that the number of passengers that can be handled can be increased at will. It has been found that in the planning of terminals with an annual capacity of 500,000 passengers, expansion up to 5,000,000 passengers per year can be achieved without any problem. Larger terminals can also be produced, but then one should start from a prototype variant in which at least 1,000,000 or 3,000,000 passengers per year are intended in advance as users.

It is not necessary for all parts of the terminal building to consist of room units of this type. It is also possible to design lounge-like areas, such as waiting areas for passengers, as rooms without columns by spanning a room of this type in the building from one module to another. The load-bearing systems or steel beams and the like that are required for this spanning can be prefabricated in similar fashion to the modules and shipped to the building site or construction site by means of empty room units, which later have only a support function on site in the terminal.

The steel frames of the room units are computed in such a way that they can absorb all vertical loads from roof and ceiling structures, and the load can be diverted into room modules located next to it or below it and thus supported. In this regard, the room units are also designed in such a way that they can meet requirements for transport by land, sea, or air.

The first two steps of the method for erecting a passenger terminal were described above. In the third phase, the prefabrication of the modules is realized parallel to the erection of the infrastructure and on the construction site. In this regard, in the production sequence, all interior finishing and technical facilities provided for in the planning stage are already installed in the modules during the prefabrication. Module-overlapping installations are prepared in such a way that they can be connected with little effort at the construction site, e.g., by compression joints, bolted joints, or crimp joints of the corresponding power lines. Similarly, the furniture can already be completely installed in room units during the prefabrication; it is only necessary to secure these furnishings for shipment.

In the fourth phase, the prefabricated modules are secured for shipment, weatherproofed, if necessary, and then sent to the construction site by suitable means of transportation. During the shipping phase of the first modules, the last modules are already being prefabricated at the factory and prepared for shipment. The inventors have determined that about 400 prefabricated modules can be produced in a month. Since only about 406 modules are required for the construction of a prototype of an airport terminal of the type to be described below, the entire building can be prefabricated within about one month.

In the further production phase after preparation of the construction field at the construction site, the individual room units, such as modules, can be stacked on top of each other as soon as strip footings or the like are ready. The modules are joined either by bolting or by welding. This does not require any complicated assembly technique but rather only standard tools and a mobile crane that is capable of moving the heaviest modular unit to the location and to the height that is intended for it in the terminal building.

Finally, in a seventh phase, the prepared power and infrastructure connections can be connected to the terminal, and then the terminal is ready for occupancy and operation.

Naturally, this operational readiness requires that the completely prefabricated room units have already been tested and inspected at the prefabrication factory, so that there is no need for further testing, e.g., of lines, at the construction site.

If necessary or desired, a facade or a roof can be installed on a terminal building that has been prefabricated in this way, for example, to realize a rear-ventilated facade in a desert climate or, when bad weather strikes, to have suitable means of collecting precipitation or absorbing cold.

The invention is described in greater detail below with reference to a specific embodiment.

FIG. 1 shows the ground pan of the first floor of a terminal.

FIG. 2 shows the ground plan of the second floor of the terminal

FIG. 3 shows the ground plan of the third floor of the terminal.

FIG. 4 shows the ground plan of the fourth floor of the terminal.

FIG. 5 shows a top view of the roof of a terminal according to FIGS. 1 to 4.

FIG. 6 shows a view of the building along the grid line Aa in FIG. 1.

FIG. 7 shows a section between the axes Ah and Ai according to FIG. 1.

FIG. 8 shows a front view of the building along the grid axis A18 according to FIG. 1.

FIG. 9 shows a rear view of the building along the grid axis A1 according to FIG. 1.

FIG. 10 shows an enlarged view of FIG. 1 in the area of reference number 10.

FIG. 11 shows a section of the building on the second floor above the area of reference number 10.

FIG. 12 shows a detail drawing from the fifth floor between the grid axes Am and An and A5 to A7

FIG. 13 shows an enlarged detail drawing from the fifth floor between the grid axes An-Ap and A2 to A4.

FIG. 14 shows standard frames of a prior-art box container.

The entire building is divided by a horizontal grid with the planning lines 1 to 18 and in the second axis with the grid lines A to P for all areas of the four floors. The grid lines 1 to 18 are separated by a distance equal to the width of a container, and the grid lines with the letters A to P are separated by a distance equal to the length of a container. In this case, the basic dimensions are those of a 20-foot container with a length of 6 m and a width of about 2.5 m. FIG. 1 shows the ground plan of the first floor of an embodiment of a terminal. As viewed from the bottom towards the top in FIG. 1, the ground plan shows horizontal grid lines 1 to 18 and vertical alignment grid lines A to P. To the left of grid line A, another grid line Av is seen. In the discussion which follows, the grid lines will also be called axes with the capital letter A and the following line number, and the capital letter A and an additional letter for the other grid axis. The fields between the points of intersection of the grid axes or grid lines correspond exactly to the ground plan of a standard container that conforms to ISO; in this case, the area between the grid lines is determined by the basic dimensions of a 20-foot container. Between the grid lines A and B, the distance is about 20 feet or 6.05 m, and the distance between, for example, the grid lines 16 and 15 is 8 feet or 2.45 m. FIGS. 8 and 9 show the story heights or heights of the room units. These heights correspond to an arbitrarily selected grid separation distance of 3.20 m, which results in an interior room height for each room unit or each module of 2.75 m.

It is clearly seen that a room unit is assigned to each field between the grid lines. This is seen especially well in the enlarged views in FIGS. 12 and 13.

In the prototype definition of the planning grid for the airport, only the grid lines A1 to A18 and AA to AP were provided at first; all parts of the terminal are located within the grid lines with the exception of the infrastructure access 11 for the terminal. On further consideration, it became apparent that it would be logical to expand the airport, with its air side 1 and its land side 2, where the passengers enter the terminal, with a baggage conveyor belt 10. Therefore, another grid line Aav was added between the grid lines A6 and A14, parallel to the grid line AA, and additional add-on modules Z1 to Z8 (FIG. 10), which house a baggage roller table 25. In this way, it is possible to house add-on modules in all places or on several floors, as those skilled in the art will recognize in the course of the specification. On the land side 2, the entrance for the passengers, passengers enter a public area 5, to the right of which are found, for example, a travel agency counter 8 and a car rental counter 7, and to the left of which is found, for example, a ticket counter 9. After picking up a ticket, the passenger can proceed to the check-in counters 6, of which nine are shown here, and then to a security screening area and finally to the departure lounge 3. Before departure, the passenger can purchase travel necessities in a duty-free shop 14 or eat in a restaurant 15. When the flight is announced, he can pass through the assigned gate 12 to get to the air side 2, at which, for example, an airplane to his destination is standing by. It is apparent that administration offices 13 must also be provided for employees who have work to do on the air side. The entrance 11 for arriving passengers is seen on the right side of FIG. 1. The arriving passengers enter an arrival lounge 4, where they pick up their baggage from baggage conveyor belts and are able to leave the building through the public area 5, where they can also obtain a rental car at the car rental counter 7.

FIG. 2 shows the same planning grid as in FIG. 1, but here there is no axis AAv, because the baggage conveyor belt in area 10 is present only on the first floor. On the second floor, engineering areas 17 are provided, as well as auxiliary areas for the restaurant or additional offices 16 along the entire front of the building on the land side 2. The area 19 designates the crawl spaces above the departure lounge, and area 20 designates the crawl space above the arrival lounge.

FIG. 3 shows the ground plan of the third floor of the terminal. Reference number 22 designates the ceiling spaces of the second floor, since on the second floor there are no room units above the departure lounge and the arrival lounge; only in area 21 an engineering bridge is present, which connects the engineering areas in FIG. 2. Numerous offices 23 for administration or other needs, for example, conference rooms, are provided on the land side.

Similarly, FIG. 4 shows additional offices or administrative rooms 24 on the land side 2, while on the air side 2, this ground plan shows only the roof 22 over the arrival and departure lounges.

FIG. 5 is a top view of the roof 22 and again shows the design of the terminal with the various grid axes.

FIG. 6 shows a view of the terminal building along the grid line A in FIG. 1, i.e., without the additional room units with the baggage conveyor belt, while FIG. 7 shows a section between the axes Ah and Ai according to FIG. 1 through the building from the air side 1 to the land side 2. It is clearly seen that, in the area of the departure lounge and the arrival lounge, the terminal has only two stories with the engineering bridge 21, while on the land side, the building has four stories and is covered by a roof 22/3.

FIG. 8 shows the front view of the building from the air side, i.e., a view that corresponds to the grid axis A18. In the upper part of the building, an installed facade is indicated, which can be used for lettering the building or for air conditioning the building.

FIG. 9 shows a corresponding rear view of the building or the land side 1 of the terminal along the grid line 1.

FIG. 10 shows an enlarged view of area 10 with the add-on modules, namely, the room modules Z1 to Z8. The baggage conveyor belt 25 is located in this area. After the planning of the prototype of the terminal, which was originally intended to extend only to axes Aa, this projecting construction was provided, for which reason another axis AAv between the grid lines A14 to A6 was planned. Z1 to Z8 each represent a room unit or a module.

FIG. 11 shows the same area but now in the second story; it is apparent that there is no additional projecting structure here, but rather only the ground plan of the terminal is to be seen in this area between the grid axes Aa to Ac and A7 to A14. In the area of the departure lounge, whose air space can be seen on the second floor, it is seen that the lounge is spanned by a support system 26. This support system was prefabricated in sections that are shorter than room units, so that they could be shipped in the empty containers/empty modules, for example, Z1 to Z8, to the construction site, where they are used in the manner illustrated here as supports for the lounge roof over the departure area.

FIG. 14 shows the frame R of a commercial prior-art box container without walls, ceiling, or floor.

FIGS. 12 and 13 show enlarged sections of the terminal, specifically, from the fifth floor of the terminal. In FIG. 12, two room units/modules with the designations M4.073 and M4.057 are arranged side by side and together form a pantry on the left side and a restroom on the right side. Each individual module, for example the module M4.058, consists of a square tubular frame, whose vertical supports are indicated by the reference number R58. The other edges of the container, which are produced with the same type of construction as is seen in the prior art according to FIG. 14, are not shown in FIG. 12. In this case, the room unit M4.058 or the module M4.058 is located between the grid axes Am and An on one side, and between the grid lines A5 and A6 on the other side. The module M4.073 between the grid axes A6 and A7 abuts on it and is welded with it by welds on the tubular frames R58 and R73, so that the modules M4.058 and M4.073 are immovably connected with each other. This makes it possible first to install a pantry in the parts F2 and F3 in both modules at the factory, and then these built-in internal structures F2 and F3 need only be joined with each other at the construction site. The same applies to the interface through the restroom cell. Provision was already made at the factory regarding the places in which doors for the module M4.058 are to be installed and regarding the place in which a window was to be provided in module M4.073.

While FIG. 12 shows two adjacent modular units, in FIG. 13 the scale was reduced somewhat, so that four modular units M4.014, M4.015, M4.029, and M4.030 are shown. These modular units are welded together on the tubular frame or hollow section frame in such a way that an office unit consisting of an office and a conference room is obtained, in which the furniture F was already completely installed during the manufacture of the room module. Only in the case of module M4.029, was it necessary, at the construction site, to move the piece of furniture F1 into the position illustrated here in order to realize a suitable furniture arrangement.

All of the room modules have room edges, which consist of square hollow sections of the type MSH 100 mm×100 mm with wall thicknesses of 6-12 mm. These frames or module foundations are sufficiently stable that they are able to support static loads in the finished terminal and are also able to absorb dynamic stresses during shipment without any problem. It is clear to those who are skilled in the art that an assignment of the modules or containers in the manner shown in FIGS. 12 and 13 requires that the sides of the module, which have no walls, must be temporarily sealed in a weatherproof way at the factory, so that during shipment from the factory to the construction site, dirt cannot get into the modules unnecessarily. The restroom cell according to FIG. 12 is prepared in such a way that all of the water connections and power connections are already completely installed in the walls, ceilings, and floors, and only in the case of lines that extend beyond the room module, is it necessary to connect the power lines to an interface by suitable screw connections, compression connections or plug connections.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS AND LETTERS

-   1 air side -   2 land side -   3 departure -   4 arrival -   5 public area/entrance -   6 check-in counter -   7 car rental counter -   8 travel agency counter -   9 ticket counter -   10 baggage arrival/departure -   11 arrival entrance -   12 departure exit -   13 administration, level 0 -   14 commercial area, departure (shops) -   15 restaurant -   16 offices -   17 engineering area -   18 restaurant auxiliary area -   19 crawl space above departure lounge -   20 crawl space above arrival lounge -   21 engineering -   22 roof surfaces -   23 administration offices, level 2 -   24 administration offices, level 3 -   25 conveyor belt -   26 support system -   F furniture -   Z add-on module -   Aa-p grid line -   A1-14 grid line -   M module -   R frame section 

1-18. (canceled)
 19. A passenger terminal, comprising: modular room units comprising facilities necessary for passenger traffic, the modular room units being configured to be shipped in standardized containers by means of ordinary transport vehicles by at least one of land, sea, and air to a predetermined construction site, and configured to be assembled at the predetermined construction site in a short amount of time to produce a functional passenger terminal building according to a predetermined planning grid.
 20. The passenger terminal according to claim 19, wherein all of the room units correspond in their length and width to a standard transport container in accordance with DIN/ISO standards and are standardized in their height.
 21. The passenger terminal according to claim 20, wherein all room units conform in their lengths and widths to a box container with the designation 1C standardized according to DIN/ISO.
 22. The passenger terminal according to claim 19, wherein all room units are formed as rectangular solids and have steel frames made of standardized hollow sections.
 23. The passenger terminal according to claim 19, wherein all vertical loads are supported by the steel frames of the modules.
 24. The passenger terminal according to claim 19, wherein the modules are stably joined with one another at the construction site by means of standardized bolted connections or by welding.
 25. The passenger terminal according to claim 19, wherein all of the connections of pipes and lines between the modules at the construction site comprise plug connections, compression connections, or bolted connections.
 26. The passenger terminal according to claim 19, wherein each modular room unit is prefabricated with at least complete preinstallation according to its function in the terminal.
 27. The passenger terminal according to claim 19, further comprising modules for international air traffic comprising commercially usable areas, bistros, duty-free shops, public restaurants, car rental counters, travel agency counters, and ticket counters.
 28. The passenger terminal according to claim 19, further configured and arranged for modular expansion in horizontal and vertical directions.
 29. The passenger terminal according to claim 19, wherein the modular room units are configured for disassembly and reassembly in another location.
 30. The passenger terminal according to claim 19, wherein all technical installations and furniture are installed in the modules at the site of prefabrication and are securely fixed in place for shipment.
 31. The passenger terminal according to claim 19, wherein the facilities necessary for passenger traffic comprise passenger registration/check-in, arrival rooms, departure rooms, baggage handling, terminal-specific engineering, administration, and building engineering.
 32. A method for erecting a passenger terminal, comprising: constructing the passenger terminal of a standard size configured to accommodate a certain annual number of passengers; providing at least all necessary functional areas in the passenger terminal; dividing the terminal along three axes into a cubic grid of modular room units having lengths and widths that conform with DIN/ISO containers and having heights that are determined based on the function of the modular room unit optimizing the functional areas based on the size of modular room unit; inserting interfaces between the modular room units; fabricating the modular room units; shipping the modular room units to a predetermined construction site; and constructing the passenger terminal by assembling the modular room units at the predetermined construction site.
 33. The method according to claim 32, wherein the number of passengers that can be handled in the terminal can be increased by inserting or adding modular room units.
 34. The method according to claim 32, wherein at the construction site for the terminal, independently of the terminal building that is to be erected, all necessary power and infrastructure connections are prepared as far to interfaces at which they can be connected with the terminal building.
 35. The method according to claim 32, wherein to span crawl spaces in or on the terminal, modular support systems comprising modular elements are installed and shipped in the modular room units, the modular support systems which have only a static function in the terminal.
 36. The method according to claim 32, wherein the prefabricated modular room units are tested and inspected at the prefabrication factory and are immediately placed in service after installation at the construction site.
 37. The method according to claim 32, wherein the terminal building is adapted to the climatic conditions at the construction site by installing at least one of a modular facade and a suitably modularly constructed roof.
 38. The method according to claim 32, wherein the functional areas comprise passenger registration or check-in, departure zone, arrival zone, public/commercial areas, terminal engineering, administration, and building engineering.
 39. The method according to claim 32, wherein the certain annual number of passengers is 500,000. 